A Bad Trifecta
September 1, 2023
Yesterday’s cancellation due to foul weather saw me back out today with Rich & Kevin hoping for another good bite. I wasn’t sure how it would be with a major cold front and strong NW winds right after an electrical storm! Regardless, we were going to give it a try!
We rolled out around 7:15 and fished close by for about the first hour. They caught plenty of small walleye and a few other species on shallow rocks. Eventually I moved offshore and endured the waves on another area for walleye. Although we managed to catch some, they were rather small again and we gave up after an hour or so. Kevin did manage to get one good bass before we switched locations!
The next couple of spots saw some action but not what I had expected. The fish were not active and the bites were very light. I think they missed more than they caught but at least these bass were better quality. A few perch and some small walleye were also landed as well.
Another move was made to an offshore spot when the winds laid down and they managed to catch a few more bass here as well. It seemed like every spot was holding fish, but not the size or numbers I expected to see. I finally decided to change tactics and we headed to deeper water to try for bigger bass!
After making a long run, I settled on a deep ledge and had them vertically dropshot the rocks. Although I wasn’t marking much, I knew we would eventually find some bass in the area. What I didn’t expect was that the fish we caught were on the smaller side! About a half dozen bass were landed and nothing worthy of a pic! I decided to move out deeper again and Rich was soon tight to a heavier fish. This one made the cut and a quick pic was taken before the release.
I was seeing much better results in the deeper water and decided to remain here for a while. Apparently, it was the right decision as several more, big bass were boated on the drift. We even managed to get a double with both fish being quality! I probably should have remained deep for the remainder of the day, but they wanted to try some soft plastics in shallower water for the last hour.
After having to settle for a secondary spot due to a boat being on my first choice, we spot locked on another flat nearby. This was the second time this week where I saw the same boat on one of the areas I frequently fish. I have a bad feeling that it may be one of the clients I had out recently! One of the joys of taking people fishing!
Well, just as I expected, the shallow bite didn’t pan out! Despite seeing a few fish cruising, they weren’t interested at all and we eventually packed up and headed back. Today was an interesting one filled with lots of changes throughout. The inactivity proved to be in most areas but the deep water showed the best results. All in all, it was a productive day, but we had to work hard to get the bigger bites. The conditions may have been tough, but they battled through and succeeded in the end. Their results were better than expected on this difficult fishing day. Great job guys!!
